Synthetic fibers are commonly employed in the manufacture of various consumer products. Depending on the particular use, such fibers can be modified with one or more types of additives to impart a desired physico-chemical characteristic. For example, where colored fibers are desired, dyes can be added to the fiber. Alternatively, UV absorbers or flame-retardants can be added to the fiber to render such fibers more resistant to environmental conditions.
There are various processes of adding additives to fibers known in the art. For example, the additive can be applied to a preformed fiber using a single or multiple dip process. Dip coating is particularly advantageous because the coating process is frequently independent of the type and configuration of the fiber. However, several problems tend to arise with dip coating. Among other problems, adhesion of the additive may be less than satisfactory, especially when the fiber is further processed in a weaving, knitting, or other mechanically challenging process. Furthermore, dip coating may modify one or more surface qualities (e.g., lubricity), and are often environmentally problematic. To overcome at least some of the problems associated with coating a fiber, the additive can be admixed with the fiber material. While mixing the additive to the fiber material often alleviates or solves problems with additive adhesion, other difficulties may arise. For example, where additives are distributed across a fiber, large amounts of the additive are typically required to achieve the desired effect provided by the additive. Moreover, relatively large quantities of additives tend to negatively impact desirable physico-chemical properties (e.g., tenacity) of the fiber.
Although various methods are known in the art to improve desirable physico-chemical parameters by providing an additive to a fiber, all, or almost all of them suffer from one or more problems. Thus, there is still a need to provide compositions and methods for production of fibers with improved physico-chemical parameters.